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Critical Theories in Children's Literature
Assignments and Requirements

Spring 2011

Course Requirements:
The assignments for this class are designed to mimic the kind of work you will be doing as a professional in the field of children's literature. 
You will participate in a scholarly community, write reviews of both scholarly and children's books, do peer reviews of other scholars' work, 
and write for publication. You will also prepare presentations for teaching or for conferences. 
F2F and online class participation                10%
Teaching or Conference Presentation	 20%
Book Review with Class Presentation           20%
Review of new children's book                      10%
Final project (submitted in stages)                40%


To pass the course, you must complete each requirement, and comply with the attendance requirements outlined in the general course policies. 

 All assignments are graded holistically according to the terms of my grading rubric.

Discussion questions & class participation: 
      
I am going to attempt to keep a class blog. On it, I will post questions, thoughts, etc. before and after class. You need to log in to post a comment.
You should check it and engage with topics that interest/intrigue/confuse you. This 10% of your grade will be determined by your level of perceived
engagement in the ideas of the course.

Teaching Presentation:
         This presentation is an opportunity for you to try relating some of the theoretical concepts we discuss to a particular children's text. You are to
prepare a twenty-minute presentation that clearly articulates your concept as it relates to the text you have chosen, and then the class will have time to
 respond/challenge/extend your idea. You might think of this as a teaching session--you are teaching a particular idea or concept to undergraduates
(or whatever grade you teach), making it accessible through a textual example. Alternately, you might use this as an opportunity to practice a
conference paper.
Grade will be based mostly on the clarity with which you present your ideas.

Reviews (2):
      
You will write two book reviews in this class. The first is of a scholarly book chosen from a list organized by category. Academic book reviews
include a summary of the argument and chapters, and an assessment of the book's strengths, weaknesses, and value to the profession. Emphasis
in this class should be on the author's engagement and proficiency with theory. They are typically less than 2000 words, but we're flexible.
Look at the Quarterly or The Lion & the Unicorn for models.
 The book you choose will be linked to the topic under discussion in class that night,
so your due date will be that evening. You will also present your book to the class, emphasizing what it adds to the topic under discussion,
in a presentation of no more than 20 minutes.

     You will also write a book review for a children's book. These are much shorter--around 1 double-spaced page or 300 words. The summary of
the book should stop "above the fold" if the paper were folded in half, and the remainder is used for critique. Your audience is people who limited
budgets who want to decide whether or not they need the book for their libraries or their research.
        

Final Project:
          Your final project should be personally meaningful and theoretically informed.  The project will be completed in stages:
Stage 1: The Idea. You may either come in and discuss your idea with me, or write it up in a one paragraph abstract and turn it in.
I'll expect one on the other before February 7th.
Stage 2: The Research. Please submit an annotated bibliography for your seminar paper. Annotations can be brief, one-two sentences,
but the bibliography itself should be thorough and substantial. From your bibliography, select one article from a journal that is likely to be
interested in your topic. Perform a rhetorical analysis of the article, paying attention to the style of introduction and strategy of organization,
the way it incorporates outside sources, the use of textual material in making its argument, and the breadth of its bibliography.
This is due March 14th.
Stage 3: Write and turn in a draft of your article on April 4th. Turn your draft in without any identifying headers except the number assigned
to you. These drafts will be redistributed among your peers in a double-blind review process.
Stage 4: Complete a peer review for the draft that you have received. This is due April 11th.
Stage 5: Final papers are due April 25th.